Indie
SEE: Standard Fare’s Emma Kupa returns with folksy gem ‘Nothing At All’
EMMA KUPA has been something of British indiepop’s best-kept secret this past decade. Starting out in North Derbyshire trio Standard Fare, who released two albums of cracking, bouncy guitar pop, coming on like Talulah Gosh’s knowing, insouciant, smokey voiced big sis. A solo mini-album in 2015 was followed by an album with the former front …
SEE: The Blinders up the darkness on ‘Mule Track’
MANCHESTER-based, Doncaster-bred goth-punk outfit The Blinders are back in the fray, with their second album in the can – and their latest single “Mule Track” is a dark thrust into the psyche. The track is named for the painting in the Imperial War Museum, which depicts a mule train making its way through a battlefield. …
SEE: M83’s Jordan Lawlor steps out on his own with J. Laser EP
FORMERLY a member of French shoegazers-turned synth-wielding dreampop angels M83, Jordan Lawlor has stepped outside the fold with a bright new EP, J Laser, due for release on June 26th. The first song from the five-tracker, “Sunshine”, a glimmering slice of halcyon synth shimmer, was well received; and now another track from the EP, the …
Premiere: Groan Room – Get Off
We’re absolutely delighted here on Backseat Mafia to premiere to the track from Groan Room, called Get Off. If the sort of track that wraps it’s way around you and squeezes out any resistance you might have had. Guitars that struggle to stay leashed, tension that built and released and this sort of sweet slacker …
Album Review – Jehnny Beth – To Love Is To Live
Former Savages member Jehnny Beth is set to release her debut album To ‘Love Is To Live’ 12th June via Caroline International. This is no Savages though, this is all Beth. Her album and her music. A mash up of classical, Jazz, industrial, post punk and spoken word that span the world of sex, violence, …
NEWS: tickets on sale Friday for rearranged Lanterns on the Lake tour
BELLA UNION’S premiere Geordie shoegazers Lanterns on the Lake, whose spring tour was pulled due to the covid-19 virus, have announced the rearranged dates for February and March 2021. And this has given the band a chance to expand the dates. The band said: “We have upgraded some of the venues that had sold out, …
Track: Swansea’s Mojo Jnr make hazy bedroom pop with Miles Away
SWANSEA’S Josh David-Read might just be Cymru music scene’s latest little treasure. The nation that brought us Super Furry Animals, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Cate Le Bon will have a new songster to embrace with the debut track from Josh, who records as Mojo JNR. He said: “My goal is to make great …
Track: Pheonix-style fun from Oslo’s Divest – Coming Around
IF smiley, knowing guitar pop with a bit of bite is your thing, you could do worse than make a little time in your life for up ‘n’ coming Oslo outfit Divest. After a brace of singles in 2019, which picked up support from the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK, “Coming Around” is the first track …
Meet: We speak to Kodaline ahead of their new album release
We’ve a bit of history with Kodaline, not that you’d (or especially they’d) know. When we were in our infancy, dreaming of doing this as an actual job and meeting heroes (how we laugh now) Kodaline were one of the first bands we were actually asked to write about. Moreover (I think this is true) …
LISTEN: raging brilliance from Algiers
MATADOR’S eclectic, forward-thinking Atlanta outfit Algiers have released a two-track new single via Bandcamp, “Can The Sub Bass Speak”/ “It All Comes Round Again”. A powerful brace of songs, “Can The Sub Bass Speak” is a raging, righteous declamatory text in the great tradition of The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, over a free …